


Duct and Cover

by ForensicSpider98



Series: Love After the Fact [23]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien Biology, Alien Cultural Differences, All this stress is bad for the baby, Altean Adam (Voltron), Altean Prince Lance (Voltron), Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Aromantic Asexual Pidge | Katie Holt, Balmeran Hunk (Voltron), Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, F/M, Galra Shiro (Voltron), Galran Prince Keith (Voltron), Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, M/M, Moral Ambiguity, Moral Dilemmas, Multi, Nonbinary Pidge | Katie Holt, Olkari Pidge | Katie Holt, Post-War, it's keith. keith is the baby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:47:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23573350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForensicSpider98/pseuds/ForensicSpider98
Summary: I stand by this terrible, nonsensical pun
Relationships: Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Alfor/Coran (Voltron), Allura/Lotor/Romelle (Voltron), Hunk & Pidge | Katie Holt, Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Series: Love After the Fact [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1635043
Comments: 24
Kudos: 191





	Duct and Cover

Pidge adjusted their eyeware, inspecting the Balmeran crystals Hunk had brought them. “Yes, these should do. Thank you.”

“Of course. Shay was happy for an excuse to call her brother.”

“The brother who hates you?”

“That’s the one.”

“Mnh. I’ll never understand that man. Oh! How is Shay? She's pretty far along now, right?”

“She’s due in a few phoebs. And she’s well, thanks for asking. Chasing after Rosetta is becoming difficult. I might see if Lance wants to borrow her. Get his baby fix.”

“You people. Squirting your DNA at each other. So uncivilized. So underevolved.”

“Whatever you say, Pidge.”

“Keith agrees with me.”

“For now… So what are you gonna do with the crystals?”

Pidge rummages around their workroom, digging for their toolkit. “Well, I stumbled across some old research of Alfor’s. Before Lance was born, he’d been looking into whether Balmeran crystals are biocompatible. Things that are compatible for some other species, like coral or ceramic, are not compatible with Alteans, limiting the use of more advanced prosthetics and cosmetic modifications. Alfor suggested that due to its unique ability to absorb, store, and distribute quintessence, Balmeran crystal might be biocompatible.

“But after Lance was born, he just kind of… discarded it.”

“That’s brilliant, Pidge. Have you contacted Ryner back on Olkarion?”

“Yes. She’s fascinated by the idea. As am I.” Pidge finally found their toolkit under a pile of digital blueprints of a Galran barrow. “It’ll be tricky. There are so many variables. I’ve also requested samples from Balmera T-672 and B-43 for comparison.” 

Hunk carefully clears a space at Pidge’s worktable so they can lay out the crystal samples. “It’s okay, right? To hand off Rosetta to Keith and Lance? I mean, it won’t make Keith uncomfortable or anything?”

“Pfft. No. He threw someone across the training room the other day because they asked why they should take orders from a ‘stunted little freak’. Apparently they forgot exactly who they were talking to. If you came onto him he might be uncomfortable, but other than that, I think you’ll be fine.”

“So what are we doing exactly?” Hunk asked, passing a small toolkit and a camera to Pidge. They climb up into the ducts, arranging supplies.

“ _I_ am sneaking into Alfor’s lab to eavesdrop. _You_ are going to be my backup. I’d let you be my full partner in this, but if you get fired, your family will starve. If I get fired, I live here in the ducts and make Alfor’s life hell.”

“You say as you make me your accessory in this crime. Also, I thought you had a feed in there.”

“Eh, Lance’ll come through for you. I have faith. I did, but it’s gone now. Like, the entire unit has been removed and destroyed. He probably suspects it’s me, but I used a generic device just in case.”

“I suppose… Why _specifically_ are you sneaking into Alfor’s lab?” Hunk passes up a coil of rope. They have more advanced toys, of course, but sometimes Pidge likes to go back to the basics.

“Because. Lance says that there’s a rumor going around that there’s still unrest between Altea and Daibazaal. He’s got his cronies, that is you, me, Adam, and Lanval, running around trying to find the truth in it. Alfor spends almost all of his time in there, but he’s in the training yard right now, so it might be our chance.”

“But…” Hunk twiddles his thumbs. “It’s just court gossip, right? Totally nothing.”

Pidge presses their long, long fingers to their forehead. “Hunk, gossip is never ‘just’ gossip. Like legends, there’s always _some_ truth to it. Comms check.”

“Comms check,” Hunk repeats, adjusting the mic dangling from his earpiece as Pidge’s voice chimes.

“Comms are go.” Pidge gets on their belly in the duct, crawling forward with the rope slung over their shoulder, toolkit at their belt, a camera strapped to their head. They activate a tiny, holographic map set into a device on their wrist. “You know, I’ve been thinking a lot about armor lately.”

“Could you think about it later? Y'know, when we're _not_ about to get our asses court martialed?”

“And more discreet weapons. Teleporting, returning weapons? And like, better shields? Oooh, how about- oof!” Pidge rubs the top of their head, grimacing as their feelers trembled with the duct's reverb. They’d run into the wall of the duct. Hmm… do they go left, or right? They check their map. Right. 

“How about you pay attention to what you’re doing right now?” Hunk mumbles. Pidge rolls their eyes. “And we can talk about armor later, after we’ve gotten away with treason.”

“‘Kay.” Pidge crawls along. “Found it,” they whisper, carefully popping out a vent like the one they crawled through. The gripping pads of their fingers cling to the metal, making sure it doesn't clatter to the ground.

“What do you see?”

“Hm. A ton of nothing.” There’s nothing. Well, actually there’s a ton of stuff. Alembics, beakers, flasks, test tubes, burners, scales, weird stuff in jars, a suspension chamber, quintessence capsules full of glowing blue liquid… It’s just an alchemy lab, albeit an incredibly well-supplied one. “I’m going to descend.”

Reaching the floor, there’s still nothing. Pidge looks around tilting their head so that their asymmetrical ears catch more sounds. Humming emptiness. “Something’s definitely off.”

“How so?” Hunk whispers, leaning forward to eye Pidge’s feed. The young Olkari runs their spindly fingers over a table. It comes up- “Is that dust?”

“Yes,” Pidge whispers. “Why? How? Alfor enters this room every day after breakfast and doesn’t leave until it’s at least time for dinner.”

“Maybe he’s using another table?”

Pidge hums skeptically, but checks around. Everything is dusty. They study the wear patterns in the floor. Too much wear. There's dust collected under the tables, but everywhere open is clear, thanks to the stupid cloaks these royals wear. Clearly, Alfor had paced and flitted all over this lab at one point. “No good. Hmm…”

Pidge pulls up their map of the ducts, notices a large space right next to the lab. “Hunk, can you check the castle map? I want to know what’s next to the lab on the east side.”

“Sure.” Pidge waits. “Pidge? Yeah, there’s nothing. Just space.”

“Yeah, right. I’m so sure.” Pidge shimmies up the rope back into the duct, replacing the vent one they’re back in. Negative space can be tricky. There’s no telling what’s in negative space. “Scanning for surveillance… Scan complete. No surveillance equipment detected, but I am detecting electronics. Okay so if I cut _here_ -” Pidge indicates a panel in the duct. “I should be able to see something. If not, we’ll go from there.”

They pull out a miniature blow torch, cutting a hole in the side of the duct. They love this kind of work. It’s fun playing Lance’s spy.

“Okay, friend. Please be careful. And don’t do anything that’ll make Shay a widow, okay?”

“I will. And I won’t. I promise. As soon as I’m done, you can go back to your gross domestic life.” Pidge finishes with the duct.

“Uh-huh. Speaking of my gross domestic life, are you still coming over for dinner tomorrow?”

“Absolutely! It’s been ages since I saw Rosetta! Okay.” Pidge sticks the adhesive pads of their fingers to the siding, pushing it out so they can turn it to fit through the hole they’ve made. “Woah.”

“Woah,” Hunk parrots. “That explains the electronics you detected. What are we looking at?”

Pidge stares down at a large room of holographs and screens. In the middle of the room, there’s a particularly large table with a holographic top. Hovering, glittering in the dim room, is a perfect three-dimensional replica of Daibazaal. “A war room. We’re looking at a war room.”

Holding the panel of the duct steady with their sticky fingers, Pidge carefully seals the cut out section back into place. They lay on their stomach in the duct, thinking.

“Oh mother earth, are we still at war? Has this all been for nothing? What if-”

“Most likely scenario is that Alfor doesn’t trust the Galra. The one thing he’s very good at is killing people. He’s probably planning for just in case.”

“Okay, but what if he’s not? If we go to war again, the first thing that’s going to happen is that Keith will be killed! Not to mention Allura and Romelle in the fallout. Even Keith couldn’t fight off the entire Altean Army!”

“No, he couldn’t. We don’t have time right now to go in and see what’s up, so in the meantime, we’ll make plans of our own. Lance won’t stand for this. He, Keith, Allura, Romelle, and Lotor have already given up so much for this alliance, and every time Lance reaches out to Daibazaal for advice they’ve been nothing but cordial and helpful. He’ll likely side with them. At this point, the Galra are more likely to do well by his people.”

“And we’ll side with him, right?”

“Absolutely.” It’s not even a question for Pidge.

“We have to tell him, don’t we,” hunk murmurs, saying it more as a statement than a question. “Before we figure out what’s really going on?”

“He sent us here. He’ll expect a report today and knows we can deliver.”

“Keith only just started to feel safe here.”

“Yeah.” Pidge sighs, scoots backward, working their way through the ducts until they land feet-first in their workroom. “But if Alfor can plot and scheme, then so can we.”

“Uh-huh. But… Maybe we could…” Hunk fidgets. “Scheme tomorrow?”

Pidge sighs, smiles at their friend. “Sure, Hunk. We’ll scheme tomorrow. I’ll brief Lance myself. Thanks for the crystals.”

Hunk picks Pidge up in a tight hug. “You’re welcome. Let me know if you need more. _And_ I’ll see you tomorrow for dinner. We can put the baby to bed and scheme over alcohol that's not nunvil.”

Pidge smiles wider, waves as Hunk leaves. Once he’s gone, they let their smile drop. Had they both really agreed to betray Altea so easily?

Quiznak, this place is such a mess.

**Author's Note:**

> Next time on Love After the Fact: Keith shows off his teaching skills.
> 
> Be sure to tell me what you think! Also, if you have suggestions or ideas, I'd so love to hear them! <3<3<3


End file.
